High: The new Tudor United SportsCar Championship has gotten so much right, and a great deal of what's right is the major stuff. Huge challenges, be they logistical, ego-related or political, have been addressed and resolved.

Low: And by low, we mean low. At Daytona, during the cool-down lap, officials penalized the GT-Daytona car that crossed the finish line first, giving the class win to the second-place car. The Level 5 Motorsports Ferrari that appeared to win made “avoidable contact” with the second-place Audi R8, forcing it off the track. But video proved that there was no contact, and IMSA -- four hours later -- gave the win back to the Ferrari. By then, team owner and co-driver Scott Tucker, as well as most of the media, had left the track. Tucker and Level 5 have now quit the series. He has not said that it's because of the bad call, but it's hard to imagine he was happy about it.

At Sebring, a Porsche 911 made contact with a Ferrari. After reviewing the in-car video, IMSA brought the No. 22 Alex Job-owned car to the pits and held it for an 80-second penalty. Even so, the Job entry rallied back to the lead lap and finished fourth, less than five seconds behind the winner.

Trouble was, it wasn't Job's car that hit the Ferrari. The guilty party was actually the No. 912 Porsche 911, a Porsche factory entry. Which, incidentally, went on to win Sebring in GT-Le Mans. Though IMSA figured out it was the offender, officials never penalized it even though it happened early enough in the race to leave plenty of time to call it in for a stop-and-hold penalty.

IMSA officials Scot Elkins and Paul Walter, who are in charge of competition, apologized but said there was no provision in the rules that could have made Job whole, could give him back his 80 seconds. “We're sorry,” Elkins said. He also said this won't happen again -- and it can't. It just can't.

High: A Chevrolet Corvette Daytona Prototype qualified on the pole at the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, and other Corvette DPs took the top four spots. The LMP2-style cars simply weren't competitive. But at Sebring, while the same Action Express Corvette DP won the pole, thanks largely to a balls-out qualifying run by Sebastien Bourdais, and took third place, a Ford Ecoboost-powered Riley won and a Honda LMP2 car was second. Similarly, everybody in the GT-Le Mans class looked pretty competitive.

Low: Risi Ferrari driver Matteo Malucelli was the driver of the ultra-slow-moving Ferrari struck by leader Memo Gidley at Daytona, sending Gidley to a long stint in rehab. This time, Malucelli spun his Ferrari hard into a tire wall, then launched back into traffic in front of a pack of 11 cars, collecting several. Then he stopped on the track, got out and walked away.

High: A big field of 64 cars, and a nice mix of classes.

Low: It seems like the identical, anonymous Prototype Challenge cars were responsible for some of the worst crashes, including the one that brought out the rare red flag when old tires from the tire wall they hit made the track impassable. This spec class—ORECA chassis, Chevrolet V8 crate engines—seemed like a good idea when the ALMS needed field-fillers, but it is easily the least interesting of the four classes.

High: There is a reason why teams like Audi still ship their cars, teams and drivers to Sebring for testing – 12 hours on this ancient concrete is harder on cars than any 24-hour race. The Action Express car had to keep replacing rear-view mirrors, because they kept falling off. The Mazda Skyactiv prototypes gave up on using their rear-view cameras, because they vibrated themselves to death just during practice for the race. One of the other Corvette prototypes had the entire dashboard vibrate loose and fall into the driver's lap. “A lot of the cars in the race have never run here before, and we were expecting some casualties from the track itself, aside from the racing,” said Tracy Krohn, owner and co-driver of the Krohn Racing Ferrari 458, and a veteran of Sebring competition.

Low: While the track has never looked better, Marc Miller's crash in Friday's Continental Tire Challenge race pointed up that Sebring still needs some safety updates. Miller's Mazda MX-5 Miata was turned, and went straight into a support for a pedestrian bridge, shearing the front off the car. Miller was treated and released from the hospital, but it was a horrifying incident. Had it happened to a Prototype at the speeds they run, it could have been a disaster.

High: A good day for the SRT Vipers, which – even though they got a weight penalty, a smaller engine restrictor and a smaller fuel tank between Daytona and Sebring – were still competitive and dependable, with one of the two GT-Le Mans entries taking second behind the expectedly tough factory Porsche. Viper sales are grim, and the retail side needs this program to succeed.

Low: A terrible day for Ben Keating's fast privateer Riley-built GT-Daytona Viper, which caught fire and burned within the race's first hour. A vibration turned out to be a self-destructing driveshaft, which severed the fuel line caused the engine to quit. But Keating didn't know that, and kept trying to crank the car – feeding the fire with fresh fuel. He said he wasn't sure what was happening until he looked in the mirror, and the twin streaks of fire behind him “looked like the Delorean in 'Back to the Future,'” he said.

High: Nissan needs to be in U.S. motorsports, and hopefully the competitiveness of the two Nissan-powered P2 prototypes will help get its American executives to loosen the purse strings. The company has such a rich racing history here, and the need to make some new history happen.

Low: Sylvain Tremblay and his SpeedSource Mazda shop in Florida looks like a Formula One facility, and Tremblay and crew are as smart and professional as any team in sports car racing. But it's painful to watch how long it's taking to get the gorgeous Mazda Skyactiv diesel P2s up to speed and free of niggling, unexpected little problems. Hopefully Mazda has the patience required to perfect this very innovative, ambitious program, because so far, there isn't much to show for all the work that has gone into it.